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Elemental tapped to deliver Summer Olympics OTT to four continents

Last month, Elemental Technologies CEO Sam Blackman told an audience at OTTCon that the company was gearing up for a major role at this summer's Olympic Games in London.

He revealed more details about just how big that role would be in a call with FierceOnlineVideo. Blackman said Elemental products would be used to power IP video delivery to multiple screens--including set-top boxes, PCs, tablets and smartphones--for broadcasters in the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and more than a dozen countries in Latin America.

The Portland, Ore.-based company also will create transnational video streams, video that isn't being customized for specific countries, for multiscreen delivery to viewers worldwide. Those streams, Blackman said, could be straight video feeds from live events as they occur, some with commentary, others without.

Elemental, Blackman said, has been steadily preparing for its role in what's being seen as the first truly digital Olympics, "wholly focused on making sure that our high availability software functions perfectly," he said, adding redundancy and assuring that, in the event of a hardware failure, that systems automatically move to back up systems.

With this Olympics likely to be one of, if not the most-watched sporting events ever, Blackman said he knows Elemental is in a spotlight of its own. It's Elemental Live and Elemental Server products will input, process and distribute all of the over-the-top video streams.

"We're working hard to prove the system can work perfectly 24/7," he said.

With 600 million viewers expected to see content delivered over-the-top, he said, this Olympics is a watershed event for the industry.

"This is going to be the most-watched OTT event of all time," Blackman said. "We need to be perfect; the software needs to be perfect."

Elemental has been growing quickly, opening new offices in Asia and Europe over the past year. Blackman said the company plans more expansions in the coming months.